If you've ever wondered how to measure social media, public relations, public affairs, media relations, internal communications or blogs you're in the right spot. In this space I'll be regularly ranting and raving about measurement standards, research news, techniques and the latest developments in the world of PR research and evaluation. When I'm not here, you can find me in my garden in Durham New Hampshire or in my sailboat out on the Oyster River.

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Katie Delahaye Paine (twitter: KDPaine) is the CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and author of, Measuring Public Relationships, the data-driven communicators guide to measuring success. She also writes the first blog and the first newsletters dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability. In the last two decades, she and her firm have listened to millions of conversations, analyzed thousands of articles, and asked hundreds of question in order to help her clients better understand their relationships with their constituencies.
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January 11, 2008

How PR measurement can improve your program every day

A client just asked me this question and the topic was so thought provoking I thought I'd put it up here and see if we got additional thoughts

1. It provides
data for making better strategic decisions

Whether you’re being asked to “put out a press release” or
“put together a press tour,” you need to know what’s worked and what hasn’t
worked in the past. The trend data in your dashboard will tell you not just
what has worked in terms of generating exposure, but also whether the tactic
resulted in more or less positive exposure, more or less message communications
and the impact the effort had on new user registrations.

2. Think of the
dashboard as a continuous improvement tool at your finger tips

A dashboard is essentially a live, searchable continuous
quality improvement tool. You can instantly figure out which of your efforts
resulted in better performance. By weeding out the tactics that didn’t work,
you are ensured of increasing effectiveness.

3. The
dashboard tells you whether you’re
winning or losing on key battles, and what you need to do and who you need to
contact to improve your results

In any PR department, winning or losing the major
positioning battles is critical. How you spend your day may depend on whether
you’re ahead or behind on a key initiative. Your dashboard can tell you how
you’re doing on any given battle on that day, so you’ll know where you need to
place your resources. It all provides a long-term trend view of whether over
time you’re winning or losing the battles. Further more it helps you figure out
why.

4. The
dashboard helps you figure out if your resources (budgets as well as time) is
being spent effectively

Chances are time is even scarcer than money in most PR
departments these days, so where you spend your time becomes a critical
decision. By checking your results on a regular basis to determine if your
agency is being effective and if your efforts are paying off enables you to
allocate resources more effectively.

5. The
dashboard helps you figure out what you
do has the biggest impact on signups, and retention

By integrating the media results with signups, retention,
and other key data you can make decisions based on the expected impact on the
business, not just on your media exposure.

6. The
dashboard helps you set realistic expectations

Whenever you go into a meeting these days, people expect you
to set numeric goals and objectives. The dashboard provides the data from which
you can set those benchmarks.

7. It can tell
you which messages are resonating, and which are falling on deaf ears and why

Despite the best intentions, there are times when a key
message just isn’t getting picked up, either because the media doesn’t care or
because your spokespeople aren’t delivering it. The dashboard helps you find
out which ones aren’t getting picked up and which ones are – and it can help
determine the cause.

8. When a
reporter calls, you can look up, instantly, how they’ve been covering you, what
they’ve covered, and whether or not they “get” your key messages

Before you answer that call from a reporter, you should know
if he’s been hostile or friendly, whether he gets your key messages or not, and
what topics he’s been covering. All that information is available at your
fingertips in the Dashboard.

9. When you’re
trying to decide on a spokesperson, the Dashboard can tell you who is most and
least effective

By looking up who is being quoted in your coverage and the
extent to which the story he/she is quoted in is positive, negative or neutral
and the extent to which the story conveys a key message you can quickly
determine who the best spokesperson is for any particular interview

10. You can make
better decisions about which publication to pitch for which story

You have an exciting announcement, but don’t know which the
best media is to pitch first? Check out the dashboard and figure out which
publications are most likely to cover that topic or product category. If it’s
not something you’re ever talked about before, do a quick Google news search
and then compare the top publications that come up with the data in your dashboard
to see which ones are most likely to give you favorable coverage.

11. You can make
better decisions about which bloggers to engage in a conversation

Increasingly, bloggers and other social media influencers
are a key element of every communications program. By checking your dashboard
to see who blogging about which issues is and how favorable they are towards
you, you’ll have a better understanding of which bloggers you need to start a
conversation with.

12. The dashboard
enables you to find influential spokespeople and analysts relevant to the
issues

The dashboard will help you not just identify who your most
influential analysts are but who are the analysts and experts that are most
relevant to your issues, which ones are talking about the issue most often.

13. The dashboard
gives you ammo to push back against dumb ideas

Every communications department is asked to take on a wide
variety of projects, some are wonderful, and some are dogs, but without data
it’s hard to push back against the latter. The dashboard can show you what
HASN”T worked in the past, providing proof that not all ideas are good ones.

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Measure What Matters

Katie Delahaye Paine's great little book Measure What Matters shows organizations of all sizes how to evaluate and improve their public relations and social media efforts. OrderMeasure What Matters now.